Intense competition among newspapers and television news channels has lowered the ethical standards in media, senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta has said. A provision for statutory regulation of the media will help improve the situation, he feels.
Delivering the tenth Prof. S. Bashiruddin Memorial Lecture here on Thursday, Mr. Thakurta, a former member of Press Council of India (PCI), said though there was no adequate media regulation in the country, the media could not fool around people or take them for ride every time. Quoting a dialogue of late Rajesh Khanna from film Roti he said: Yeh public hai, sab jaanti hai (public knows everything).
Self-regulation
Self regulation followed by some of the media houses in the country was the only way left for now till a regulatory mechanism was in place, though it would work only to some extent, he said. Stating that corruption among individuals in the media or among media institutions was as old as the media itself, he remarked that media was known as part of the solution once upon a time, but many journalists nowadays were part of the problems.
Paid news
On the phenomenon of paid news, Mr. Thakurta, who conducted an inquiry on “paid news”, said it had gone beyond individual greed and venality undermining the democracy itself. People believed in The Fourth Estate most once, but it presented a sorry state of affairs now as media ethics had become more like oxymoron, an expression with contradictions, he stated. Yet, there was a lot of hope for the future from Indian media and journalists as many good journalists were still around in the profession, Mr. Thakurta said.
The lecture was jointly organised by the Departments of Communication in Osmania University and University of Hyderabad and other bodies.
